Service trucks, pick-up trucks, other work vehicles and recreational vehicles have multiple built-in compartments which are used to carry tools and other expensive equipment. Each of the several compartments usually has its own lock to secure the items within. The prior art is replete with locking mechanisms for individual vehicle toolboxes. A disadvantage of these individual locking mechanisms is that when the driver of the vehicle or service technician leaves the vicinity of the vehicle, for example to perform technical services, the equipment left in any open compartment is vulnerable to theft. In fact, it is a common industry problem that service truck vehicles are frequently burgled to steal valuable equipment carried in toolboxes built into the service truck. Consequently, care must be taken to lock each toolbox individually each time the toolbox is entered. When multiple toolboxes need to be entered, each toolbox must be locked and unlocked separately, which is inconvenient and annoying. It is desirable to have a lock system that enables all vehicle equipment compartments to be locked and unlocked simultaneously.
Thieves can defeat locks by breaking the lock mechanism, so alarms are often used in conjunction with locks to further secure the items within. U.S. Pat. No. 5,727,835 issued to Krush describes an alarmed tool box installed in the bed of a pick-up truck that sounds the vehicle's horn and flashes the vehicle's lights if the lid is opened. The security system is powered by the vehicle battery. One disadvantage of this type of alarmed lock is that the alarm sounds only after the lock has been defeated. Since the lock mechanism must have been breached for the lid to open and the alarm to sound, by the time the driver responds to the alarm, the thief may have escaped with the equipment in the toolbox. Thus, it is desirable to alarm vehicle toolboxes and other equipment compartments to ward-off intruders and provide notice of an attempted break-in.
Conventional electronic lock systems are at rest in a locked state; to unlock a door, the system must be energized. Consequently, another disadvantage of known security systems which use electronic lock mechanisms that are powered by the vehicle battery is that, if the lock is left in unlock mode, the system draws so much power to stay unlocked that the battery runs down quickly. It is therefore desirable to lock vehicle equipment compartments with a system that is low-power, so that the vehicle battery is not drained. Vehicle alarms are known in the art which lock and alarm vehicle doors, however no such system has been developed for locking and alarming multiple equipment compartments using little power.
Therefore, it is an object of this invention to provide a system which locks and alarms multiple vehicle tool compartments and allows locking and unlocking of all the compartment doors simultaneously. It is a further object of this invention to provide a system that utilizes a vehicle security system and battery to alarm the compartment doors and warn of an attempted break-in. Another object of this invention is to provide a tool box lock and security system which requires little power for operation. The foregoing objects are achieved by this invention as described in detail below and shown in the accompanying drawings.